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Cell Phones in the USA

Date posted: August 16, 2011

As reported in the latest issue of Academica’s Top Ten, a new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project has highlighted the cell phone behaviour of Americans. There are certainly differences between Canadians and Americans, but this information is still handy, as it does illustrate the way people in North America are using their mobile devices on a day-to-day basis.

The report, which states that 83% of American adults own some kind of cell phone, found that during the 30 days preceding an interview participants used their phones for:

Quick information retrieval: 51% had used their phone at least once to get information they needed right away.

Entertainment: 42% of cell owners used their phone for web surfing, apps, games, music downloads, etc)

There was, however, also some frustration, with 20% of cell owners experiencing frustration because their phone was taking too long to download something, 16% having difficulty reading something and 10% having trouble entering a lot of text.

Clearly, schools have an opportunity with mobile marketing, but they need to ensure that their content is mobile ready and optimized for that channel. The full Pew Survey report can be downloaded here.